Again, “Britain”, or more accurately, Johnson himself, is the very “best in the world”!  Yes, in the face of the abject failure of the Home Office to provide visas for Ukrainian war refugees, the prime minister has found something to boast about!

    So the great generosity of the British (government!) is now proven by the fact that the “UK is the largest bilateral humanitarian donor to Ukraine” (whatever that may mean).  And never mind that the Home Office - of Windrush and Hostile Environment fame - which is so efficient when it comes to imprisoning black - and brown-skinned refugees and then promptly deporting them, can’t get its act together to process even the few sponsored (white) Ukrainians which it has decided to allow into the country!

    Out of 17,700 applications for visas under the Ukraine Family Scheme, launched on 4 March, only 640 are so far confirmed.  Just 300 visas have been issued.  Exhausted Ukrainians were sent back from Calais to Paris or Brussels to submit paperwork, and will have to wait up to 5 days before they can cross the Channel!

    Yes, this is the face of generous Britain.  However, one cannot help but compare the great outpouring of sympathy from politicians, reporters and the public for Ukrainian refugees - albeit diluted by the hypocrisy, carelessness and under-staffing of the Home Office - with the near-total amnesia over what happened just 8 months ago in Afghanistan.

    There, would-be refugees are still in hiding, unable to get to Britain - and an estimated 400 (as many as the number of Ukrainian civilians officially killed so far in this war) have been tracked down and murdered in retribution for helping the former British and US occupiers.

    Moreover, half of all Afghans currently face starvation: fathers are selling their kidneys in order to buy food for their kids.  In Yemen, where another war sponsored by the British and Americans via the Saudis, has caused untold death and destruction, 16m face starvation.  Where are the damning media reports of these catastrophes...?

    Yes, the “generous” hands of the British - and US - governments are tainted with the blood of innocent Afghan and Yemeni civilians and would-be refugees.  And while Putin’s hands may today be literally dripping with the blood of Ukrainians (and the blood of his own Russian conscripts) one can only ask: is there really that much of a difference?

This week oil prices reached the highest they've been since 2008, while gas prices have tripled to an all-time high.  Petrol prices at the pump are at record levels.  The working class faces the biggest hit to living standards since the 1970s.

     And we're told these prices will go up even more, due to the Ukraine war!  So the £700 rise in energy bills due in April, plus the £1,000 rise in October, could in fact turn into £3-5,000 increase!

    Is this inevitable?  Has a shortage of oil and gas pushed the price up?  What happened to the excess - that "glut" of supply due to the Covid pandemic - when the price of a barrel of oil fell so far it actually went negative, as demand dropped through the floor?

    In reality, prices had already been rising before the Ukraine war.  And there's nothing "natural" about it!  This is the way capitalists profiteer!  Oil and gas companies artificially restricted supply, to push prices up to recoup Covid losses - and speculators did the rest.  BP's and Shell's record profit announcements last month said it all!

    And now the war in Ukraine will give these companies an additional huge boost - and a windfall for their investors, with a green light from the government, which would never dare to intervene, via a takeover, for instance, nor even by imposing price controls!

    In fact the ban on Russian oil and gas imports announced by the US and Britain on Wednesday has already added to the oil price rise, although Britain's ban doesn't come into effect until the end of the year.

    On the other hand, the US has decided to replace its Russian supply: its population relies on cheap petrol.  So it's reinstating Venezuelan oil imports, embargoed since 2019, by hastily rehabilitating President Maduro, the "socialist" Chavez's successor, who is suddenly no longer their favourite bad guy!  And never mind that this embargo devastated the Venezuelan economy and caused a refugee crisis, as huge numbers fled the consequent poverty.  That's all in the past!

    It's worth adding, by the way, that in the same week that Russia started bombing Ukraine, the US bombed Al Shabaab "targets" in Somalia, where an offshore oil and gas contract has just been signed by a US company...

    What's more, Biden is about to endorse the Iran Nuclear Deal which will allow sanctions against Iran's oil exports to be lifted - at last, opening further opportunities for oil barons and speculators!

    In the meantime, the West's oligarchs at the head of the biggest oil and energy companies: Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Total etc., and the oligarchs of the hedge funds and their oligarchical shareholders, are already making new fortunes.  For them, this is a "lovely" war.  Never mind the bloodshed.  But we remember Iraq.